Ethiopia: Health Economist/Domestic Resource Mobilization Specialist - Ethiopia

Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents around the world — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — to create strong systems that support healthy, educated people. We help our partners move from knowing their goal to knowing how to reach it. We combine global expertise in health, education and nutrition with analytic rigor, practical support for decision-making and implementation and access to peer problem-solving networks. Together with our partners, we build self-sustaining systems that serve everyone and deliver lasting results.

R4D’s Global Health portfolio leverages extensive networks and expertise to improve health and achieve equity in health outcomes for all people around the world. Whether it's assessing policies that can support research and development on new drugs and vaccines, exploring innovations in healthcare and connecting innovators to each other or to investors, supporting the growing global movement for universal health coverage, or producing on-demand research and forecasting to help countries and global institutions plan their healthcare futures, R4D’s global health work unlocks new possibilities for global health actors worldwide.

Opportunity:

R4D is seeking a Health Economist/Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) Specialist for the recently awarded USAID-funded Health Financing Improvement Program. The overall goal of the program, led by Abt Associates, is to further strengthen health financing functions and systems to support quality Primary Health Care services for Ethiopian citizens, with reduced financial barriers. Program objectives include: Increasing domestic resource mobilization for enhanced provision of quality PHC services; Streamlining pooling of risk-sharing/insurance mechanisms for wider access to PHC services with reduced financial barriers; Facilitating strategic purchasing of health services from public and private health providers; and Improving governance, management and evidence-generation for the health financing reforms and health facilities.

This position is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and will report to R4D’s Country Director.

Responsibilities:**

Responsibilities of the Health Economist/DRM Specialist will include, but will not be limited to, the following:

• Engage in fiscal space and other forms of health financing technical analyses to make policy recommendations on options for policy, with a focus on domestic financing

• Produce policy advocacy papers for audiences including the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED) and parliamentarians

• Facilitate health financing policy dialogue and advocacy fora between Federal Ministry of Health and MOFED, and as appropriate with Parliamentarians

• Provide strategic technical expertise in innovative domestic financing for health

• Facilitate learning and experience sharing using the Joint Learning Network (JLN) platform and other mechanisms

• Engage in the identification, design and implementation of operational researches related to domestic financing

• Provide technical support in the advocacy and development of a phased plan for sustainable financing of exempted services

• Take part in integrated supportive supervision

• Act as R4D’s primary liaison to the Health Financing Improvement Program

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of relevant work experience in some combination of health financing, health systems, or health policy development and implementation

• Master’s Degree in Economics, Business Administration, Public Policy, Public Health or equivalent

• Proven understanding of health financing and economics issues, tools, and analysis methods—especially in their application to Ethiopia’s context

• Strong network of relationships within the Ethiopian health financing community; experience working closely with the Ethiopian government, particularly the Federal Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, major donors and philanthropic foundations

• Proven understanding of Ethiopia’s tax and spending system, public financial management system, central and regional fiscal responsibilities, and health financing strategy

• Proven understanding of the sources of inefficiencies in health spending and feasible tools and approaches to address them

• Experienced working with remote “home office” technical support to maximize the value of such support to program activities

• Strong written and verbal communications skills, especially in conveying technical materials to audiences of non-specialist policymakers

• Good and active listener and facilitator of policy dialogue

• Productive, energetic, task oriented, works well leading and as a member of teams, good at providing and receiving feedback

• Proven leadership experience in conceptualizing, planning, and executing projects

• Strong analytical, problem solving, and quantitative skills, with experience leading the development of analytical products

• Highly collaborative and approachable working style, and enthusiastic about working in an open-structure environment with multicultural peers and staff

• Fluent in English and Amharic

• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word

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